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Face/Off

Face/Off

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Action movie on the planet
Review: What a rush, as two of the best actors go face to face in an action packed thriller that will make you want to watch it again and again. With John Woo's awesome directing, and the line-up of stars, this instantly became my favorite movie. A must see. END

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my all-time favorite action films!
Review: Place this modern action classic up there with DIE HARD, SPEED, and THE NEGOTIATOR as one of my personal favorite action films.

Before watching FACE/OFF completely, I had taken a look at one of director John Woo's Hong Kong action epics, THE KILLER. I must say, I prefer FACE/OFF better. Sure, both films have that same over-the-top operatic style, but at least FACE/OFF isn't as shamelessly sentimental as THE KILLER was. In THE KILLER, Woo's main characters both demolished hundreds of extras in graphically bloody style, and towards the end it got a bit too much even for me. In FACE/OFF, the gore isn't quite as graphic, and while the body count is still pretty high, it never got to the point that I was disgusted.

I'm not a knee-jerk admirer of John Woo as some people are. That slow-motion technique of his can become wince-inducingly excessive, especially now that many lesser action directors have started to rip off his style. In this case, though, one is too engrossed in the plot and in awe of the high-energy action staging to notice.

Of course, most people probably already have an idea of what the plot is about: criminal Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) dies, but he has planted a bomb somewhere in LA, so obsessive detective Sean Archer (John Travolta) literally swaps identities with his arch-nemesis to go undercover at a high-tech prison to find out where that bomb is. Obviously, this situation leads to various complications as Troy wakes up from his coma, takes Archer's face, kills the doctors who performed the operation, and then tries to find Archer. It's the typical body-switch, and I would be remiss to mention that Troy is responsible for the death of Archer's son many years ago, and thus Archer has a vendetta against him that explains his obsessiveness.

It's a potentially laughable premise, but the actors and director make you buy it. Travolta and Cage are both convincing and have a lot of fun playing each others' characters, and the supporting cast is just as believable. The script, by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, may have its bum dialogue lines here and there, but it's filled with ingenuity, plot-wise, as Troy tries to fit in with Archer's family and Archer tries to function in a prison. And of course the script gives director Woo plenty of leeway to go all-out with action scenes, and Woo does not disappoint, giving us plenty of stylish gunplay and loud explosions for about three action films, and even an audacious soundbite of "Over the Rainbow" as characters blow each other away. Woo sure lets his inventiveness run free here.

So okay, the film may be a little overlong, and that final gun battle at a church is perhaps too reminiscent of a similar battle in THE KILLER, right down to the flying pigeons motif. But all its flaws are forgivable in this case, since the movie is so thrilling matters of logic fall by the wayside. FACE/OFF may not be Woo's best film ever (I haven't seen HARD-BOILED yet), but it's pretty close to it, and in comparison to other modern action films, it stands pretty high there too. It'll ceratinly forever be one of my favorites. Recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: face off
Review: he best movie in the ear 1997 it is perfect action good and adventure good nice acting for john travolta and nice acting for nicolas cage

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beyond Action
Review: One of my all-time favorites, Face/Off is the quintessential style movie. Highly recommended... A++

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Woo, Why ?
Review: It is rather hard to accept an action director who admits to basing his action sequences on Hollywood Musicals of some decades ago.
The story is fine, and both Travolta and Cage give masterly performances. However, Woo has no concept of moderation or excess. In one gun battle, that apparently took a sum total of 3 months to complete, Woo seems to be so aware that it is excessive that he cuts the audio, and we hear what the child bystander is hearing.
Even the Marine Boat chase turns into a disaster, when the Stand-ins cannot even keep their wigs on straight. Did Woo skip the dailies, or does he like a little farce?

It is utterly incomprehensible how such a good story was messed up by Woo's visual hyperbole.This story might actually might have worked in the hands of a better director, or even if the edit could be done by someone with a sense of how an action movie can work.
The Highlights are definitely around Cage and Travolta, since they did such great work, but ... Woo ... WHY ????

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: New release! Face Off (Special Collector's Edition)
Review: This will not be anything like this bare-bone edition; Paramount is considering a re-release as Special Collector's Editions in 2005. So,.... Wait for it!!!

if you can't, then get this :
R3 Korea - (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
#Extras:
----"Action overload" featurette
----Theatrical trailer
#Subtitles: English, Chinese, Korean and Thai
#Picture format: 2.35:1 Anamorphic NTSC
# Soundtrack(s): English DTS 5.1 & English Dolby Digital 5.1
#Case type: Amaray Case


And Just in case you were wondering: "Paramout will re-release more SCE of The Truman Show, Braveheart, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and maybe Titanic, among other titles. By the end of next year. Presumably, those films released previously on DVD in non-anamorphic widescreen will receive new HD anamorphic transfers." [...]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Papa's got a brandnew bag......
Review: I absoloutely love it!!! Although I'm not a fan of action-movies, "Face/Off" is on the top of my "favourite-movie-list"!!! Everything about this movie is perfect: The plot, the action, the actors...

And John Travolta looks so sexy(and muscular)in these suits he wears..(Btw, he acts brilliant in BOTH parts, also Nicolas Cage)
Adorable!
Lilly

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME!!!!!
Review: I LOVE THIS MOVIE. THIS IS A GREAT MOVIE. I HAD WENT TO THE MOVIES TO SEE THIS. THIS IS A TRUE ACTION MOVIE. IT IS AWESOME IT WILL KEEP YOU HANGNING!!!! I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I FOUND NICHOLAS CAGE TALKING ON THE PHONE WITHOUT A FACE VERY EERIE!!!!
NICHOLAS CAGE AND JOHN TRAVOLTA HAD DID A GREAT JOB!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave
Review: Easily one of John Woo's best. That's saying something when you have a resume that includes Broken Arrow, Mission Impossible I & II, Paycheck, etc. etc. Actually, looking over his credits, I would say this is his absolute greatest movie, at least my favorite.

What I thought was interesting is the fact Travolta and Cage really had to study both roles and know each other's parts. They could not have picked two better actors to play these roles. Both were phenomenal. Both actors go back and forth playing a sick, sadistic killer vs. a father figure, hard ass agent, obsessed with bringing the other down.

The two actors alone do not makes this movie. Face Off has a fabulous story. The movie starts as Travolta (the F.B.I. agent) is at the park with his son. Nicolas Cage is trying to kill him. Cage shoots Travolta from a distance with a sniper rifle. The bullet passes through Travolta and kills his son, Michael.

If Travolta didn't have an obsession with bringing Cage down before, he had one now. Travolta would go through any measure to bring down Cage. Even after bringing down Cage, Travolta discovers there is one more piece to Cage's puzzle; he has planted a bomb in the city.

The movie takes off as Travolta alters his body to resemble Cage, and get the info he needs to stop the bomb. Of course, Cage's character comes out of his comma, has a physician kidnapped, and turns himself into Travolta.

As if the story wasn't good enough, everyone and everything gets beat up, blown up, and shot out of something before this two hour and twenty minutes movie comes to it's conclusion. By that time, you just like, how did these actors and stunt guys make it through the whole movie?

Yep, this movie is a must have in your DVD collection that you can absolutely feel safe buying before viewing. When people think of the name John Woo, they should think of this movie first, the Mission Impossible movies second.

Grade: A


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: 1 star is too many
Review: This movie was a first for me. After 15 minutes, I turned the VCR off, returned the video to the store, and never looked back. I can count on one hand the number of movies I have ever stopped watching before the end. This one has the dubious honor of being the one requiring the fewest minutes of viewing to conclude that I was completely wasting my time. And, no I do not hate all action movies, nor do I have anything against John Travolta or Nicholas Cage. This was just so bad from the beginning that I couldn't suffer through the whole thing.


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